punstersquared

Agreed. I am a vet student with a geezer cat. She and I have an agreement - I won't try to give her long-term oral meds or add anything to her food, and she won't try to bite me while I'm medicating her OR murder me in my sleep. She gets Adequan IM for her arthritis, which probably ends up being cheaper than Cosequin anyway.

In addition to what /u/jadedgoldfish said, it can help to give them empty treat, empty treat, Pill Pocket with pill, empty treat. They're so focused on getting the next treat that they gulp down the Pill Pocket without stopping to inspect it carefully and pick it apart.

One case to rule them all...

It doesn't hurt them, and we do it sometimes in the hospital, but not all cats will tolerate this method more than a few times, unless your idea of fun is turning all your furniture upside down to find and catch the cat when it becomes pilltime. My personal cat also actively alligator rolls and tries to bite any hands/fingers in the vicinity if she knows you're trying to pill her. She's very sweet the rest of the time but has had some painful resorptive lesions and then the horror! of the taste of tramadol ruined her the rest of the way.

For those reading, if you don't want to stick your finger in your cat's mouth (large finger, immunocompromised owner, or bitey cat), ask your vet for a syringe that is JUST bigger than the size of the pill. Cut off the tapered end of the syringe, sand it a bit to make the cut end smooth, and you have yourself a custom-sized pill popper for 10 cents that can be used to shoot the pill into the back of the cat's mouth. It can help to lubricate the pill with a little butter so it slides down more easily.

I see all these statements saying that opioids are NOT useful long term...and then I see lit reviews saying that there haven't been any long term studies on the use of opioids for non-cancer pain. The evidence stinks and recommendations from on high are being made based on low quality studies. Absence of evidence is not evidence of absence, and many board-certified pain management doctors still use opioids as part of their armamentarium for selected patients.